


Reflection

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 10:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17020968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Prompt: FTL AU - Regina casts the curse, but makes a mistake and she gets trapped in a mirror. 28 years later, Emma discovers the mirror while traveling.Asked by anon via tumblr





	Reflection

The sound of distant voices woke her from the slumber she tended to fall into whenever the outside world was darkened, magic inside the mirror exhausting hers as long as she remained awake. Blinking into existence but keeping her shadow outside of the mirror’s surface, the Queen peered outside into the crates and boxes that populated the small room she was in.  There was little to see at the moment, the dust that floated around and caught brief and small sunrays the only thing she was able to see from her angle.

Over the years she had been in many places; houses, museums, bathrooms, pawnshops -like the one she was currently in, but she had never gotten used to being static. To thought made her growl inwardly, the rage that had fed her long ago gone and buried under years of silence. Bitterness was what not filled her but the desire to be in the world her curse had sent everyone into; the curse a powerful blast that had covered the entire northern side of the enchanted forest.

Unfortunately, that option had been casted out of her hands yet again and so, there she remained: a ghost to those who had tried to look into the surface of her imprisonment for too long.

Her musings were once again cut short by the same two voices that had woken her up. One old and gruff, the voice of the pawnshop’s owner. The one who had pocketed her and put her there while not giving her a second look. The other was different however, not one she had heard before and one that definetely lacked the soft-spoken way of the ones that tended to enter into the shop; willing to give anything and everything to the old man that tended the place.

No, this one was different. Mildly interested she tilted her head and squinted her eyes towards where she knew the door of the little room she was in was located. From where she was she couldn’t really see it but the change in lighting told her that the door was beginning to open, the rattle of keys against the wood enough for her to approach to the mirror’s edge.

“I don’t know why you are interested on this, Swan.” The man’s voice reached her, stronger this time as whoever that accompanied her sighed so deeply the sound carried away to her as well.

“I’m not.” Came the reply, the voice replied; feminine, higher maybe than Regina’s own. “The man that contacted me is. He said he wanted it to be sent to Storybrooke as soon as possible.”

The pawnshop owner snickered at it, footsteps coming nearer to where the mirror was located; at the back of the room, precariously perched atop a few boxes.

“Thought you searched people, not mirrors.”

Regina couldn’t see the woman, but she could almost imagine a shrug rolling from her presence, the sound of her feet against the floor distinctive against the man’s; lighter but still strong as if she owned the place.

A cocky one then. The thought didn’t reach Regina as strongly as the word “mirror” did. Where they talking about hers? The question made her frown; already irritated with the idea of being owned by yet another person. As much as she hated not being able to break the curse that kept her trapped -and she had already tried far more times than she was willing to admit even to herself, she liked even less the thought of being put into display in some bathroom.

The woman’s voice floated to her once again, this time just a few inches away from the narrow window she had of the exterior of her prison.

“He paid well in advance and the job was easy. He already knew where I needed to search. Didn’t he contact you?”

“No.” The owner finally appeared in front of her, his narrow face and black eyes squinting slightly, one hand quickly going over the surface of the mirror, as if checking if it was cracked. Quickly taking a step away from the glass, into the reality pocket within she existed, Regina bared her teeth at him. As much as she knew the mirror itself wasn’t a part of her the thought of being trapped, defenseless, wasn’t something she enjoyed. “Gold you said? No, he didn’t. I wonder how he knew I had the mirror.”

“A dedicated collector?” The voice sounded strong now, as if the woman was just standing at her right. “Don’t know. Can I take it with me now? Gold said he wanted me to give it to him personally. And Maine is not exactly half an hour away from here.”

The man grabbed the mirror and turned, Regina’s eyes blind to anything that wasn’t his chest. She, for once, didn’t mind as Gold’s name had aroused certain suspicion’s inside of her. Ones that had been the only thing she had clung to during the first years of imprisonment even if she had started to lose them the longer she was passed around as nothing but a mirror.

_Could it be…_

Feeling her energy beginning to dwindle, Regina let herself being transported back to the shop’s entrance and from there to the hands of the still faceless woman. After that and being quickly placed on what she only could imagine was one of those awful ‘cars’ she still needed to get used to, she felt the tremors of the engine flaring up, music beginning to fill the place as the woman sung softly.

After that, darkness.

Darkness that was interrupted yet again by a series of movements and grunts, the cloth that had apparently found its way in front of the mirror’s surface being removed. Blinking, not quite perturbed by the difference in lighting but still surprised of being awoken once again, Regina looked outside the confines of her prison; a set of green eyes staring back at her with blonde bouncy locks framing pale and chiseled cheeks.

The blonde that was crouching in front of her, leather jacket and long fingers gripping the frame of the mirror, the only things she was able to see aside from her neck and face, frowned and looked at her back, at what seemed to be a small hotel room. Regina had already been in several over the years and could recognize the cheap sheets that hung from what was probably a rickety bed and poorly decorated place as quickly as she realized that after checking no one was behind her the blonde woman had turned, eyeing her with something close to dismay on her face.

She could see her.

Regina took a step backwards into the void of darkness. She hadn’t wished to be visible from outside. A little trick she had learnt fairly early on the curse. From what she knew, she was supposed to be invisible to anyone who peered into the mirror, the surface nothing but reflective.

The blonde, however, was looking directly at her, lips parted.

“Holy…”

Well, this certainly changed things. Frowning and stepping consciously into reality, Regina eyed the blonde with curiosity. One thing she had also learnt quite quickly is that sorceress, mages and any other magic individual were hard to come by in this world. Magic was so feeble here that the only magician she had been able to stop by during her years imprisoned had merely been able to do something that couldn’t even be described as party tricks. The blonde, however, reeked of magic, one inherent, not learnt, and even if she wasn’t entirely able to channel entirely onto the world’s power she could also sense that wherever she now was hold some kind of the same magic that had once run through the Enchanted Forest. Diluted, strange, but still recognizable.

“Can you see me?” She finally asked, voice lacking certain haughtiness, the one she had been known for aside from her title. She was curious, trapped, and as the blonde took a step back, eyes widened and muscles taut as if expecting a fight, Regina couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

It was one more than welcomed after the man’s after all.

“What…” Spluttering, the blonde looked at her back once again, almost as if expecting someone to be there, crouched in the opposite corner where Regina was. “What the fuck are you? How are you doing this? A camera?”

Regina refrained herself from rolling her eyes, barely, it was obvious that the blonde was either an idiot or she wasn’t aware of the magic that rolled off her, its scent different than anything Regina had ever seen. Not a warlock, not a witch.

“I’m not a trick.” She finally said, some tiredness beginning to gnaw at her insides. She had been momentarily blindsided by the fact that the blonde seemed to be able to see her without her wishing express idly so but, perhaps, she had been too careless.

Licking her lips, the blonde approached her, slight wonder filling her eyes. The same kind of wonder Regina had seen on some children when she had let her form be seen.

“What are you then?”

Regina growled.

“Not a what.” She began, and this time her voice held every bit of the Queen she had been. That still was. She was growing impatient; if the blonde was able to see her and hadn’t been a mistake from her part then she needed to know where she was. “That’s for certain. Where I am?”

“Storybrooke.” The blonde’s answer fell from her lips almost distractedly, her eyes already searching around at the mirror’s frame, perhaps trying to see if, in fact, there wasn’t anything tricking her. “Maine. How does this work?”

Sighing, Regina pinched the bridge of her nose, her hand as weightless as usual, outside of the frame the mirror gave her. “Again, not a trick. I’m a person.”

The blonde scoffed at that and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Part of her previous fright seemed to be forgotten already and her posture showcased what Regina had already imagined: cocky, far too much perhaps.

“And how is that you are inside a mirror?” Her words didn’t have any bite, but her eyes were trained on her, almost as if she was weighing her down, trying to see how much or how little Regina answered.

Which was a game the woman would have been happy to play if it wasn’t by the fact that, for the first time in a very long time she was starting to believe that she maybe could come free from this prison. And then, after escaping, find the ones who had tricked her into it.

“A curse. Magic.”

Another scoff, louder this time as the blonde shook her head from side to side, her locks bouncing with every movement.

“Magic doesn’t exist.” She said that with such conviction that Regina almost laughed it, at the naivete of the woman who was there, speaking to her, treating her like a trick and yet listening to what she had to say.

Feeling snarky, she tilted her own head and let some of the magic that she now could feel around her channel through her eyes, making them sparkle with a purple light powerful enough to be seen through the other side of the mirror’s surface. Enough to make her feel weaker but not enough to make her lose conscience.

“Sad to tell you that it does then.” She pointed at the blonde, at the almost aura she could feel gathering at her sides; dirty blonde in color and strong enough to make her wonder how the blonde couldn’t know magic was real. “And you reek of it.”

Frowning, the blonde nibbled her bottom lip, approaching her with one step and gazing at Regina with something close to a pout on her face. One that would have made Regina laugh at it if it wasn’t because every second speaking of this was a lost one.

“I don’t reek.”

That actually made her smirk, only if it was only a little. Humming, Regina appraised the blonde’s figure, long enough to make the other woman shiver, uneasy.

“Oh, but you do. As well as this place.” Narrowing her eyes, remembering the detail she had picked before putting in that car, she let her voice carry out the only question that she truly felt like she needed to know. “Why I’m here?”

For a moment, it seemed as if the blonde wasn’t going to answer her; doubt clouding her eyes and just the barest touches of a blush beginning to recede on her cheeks. Ultimately, however, she sighed and answered, crouching back again to Regina’s eye level.

“A guy asked me to bring… you here.” Letting her hands dangle from her knees, the blonde let out a soft grunt. “Didn’t tell me why, just called me, transferred the money and told me to be here today.” Still kneeled, she addressed Regina once again, a tilt on her pitch. “You sure you aren’t a trick?”

It was Regina’s turn to let out an undignified grunt. One the Queen on her looked down at but she was getting fed up of that word.

“I can assure you I am not one. Do you know who I am?” This time she tried to sound threatening but the blonde merely chuckled, unfazed.

“A woman trapped into a mirror? Or an enchanted…” Snapping her fingers, the blonde addressed her again. “Do you know Snow White’s enchanted mirror? From Disney.”

“More than you can imagine.” Her answer was filled with the anger and hate that filled her every time that name was uttered in front of her. Luckily, she hadn’t been subjected to this ‘Disney’. Whoever that was. But she had a suspicion that if the blonde knew about Snow White the story she knew was heavily curated.

Humming, the woman bit down on her lips for a few more seconds, still studying her. After a moment of silence, she spoke again, gentler this time.

“What’s you name then? If you aren’t an enchanted mirror and I’m not losing my mind here.”

She said that last bit with a short smile on her face. One that made Regina frown, confused.

“Regina.” The word fell strange, it had been a long time since she had used her name, her real name and not her title. Even longer since someone had dared to ask. The blonde, however, seemed to be her only ticket outside the mirror and there was someone about her, about the magic she possessed and still clung to her that made her astonishingly honest. “Regina Mills.”

The surname was still a difficult one to use; memories of herself, of a younger self, flooding her mind in a way that made her wince.

She could, however, pick on the nod the blonde gave to her name, her lips mouthing it again, as if trying it out. Ultimately, she pointed at herself with nothing but a lazy wave.

“Emma Swan. Bail bondsperson”

That could explain why this… Gold had asked for her services. More so if Regina was right on the suspicion that the one who had found her wasn’t one she wanted to faze. Not like this, still trapped.

At first, during the first weeks of her imprisonment, she had considered the possibility of having failed completely on her intent on cursing the Enchanted Forest. As months passed, however, and repeating the words of the hex time and time again became almost as natural to her as breathing, she had surmised that the curse had worked, partially. Which meant that if she was there, in this new world, others would be as well. The curse tied Regina to them after all. In a way that she still needed to research but a real link nonetheless. One that kept her bound to whatever realm the cursed inhabitants of the forest were. And there was a very short list of those that could know enough magic theory to know how to find her.

Which was precisely the reason why she addressed Emma again, urgency seeping into her voice in a way that sounded far too much like pleading even if she didn’t like the concept.

“Listen to me then, Miss Swan.” She saw the frown at the use of the title, but she wasn’t going to use the blonde’s name. Names were powerful things and she was already reflecting on why she had given hers so easily. “I need your help to escape from this mirror.”

That made the other woman balk, the change on her posture obvious the second the words were out. Her magic turning darker around her, the dirty white sparks that had seemed to follow her wherever she went now stilling, turning nebulous. Which was already strange, for someone who claimed not to believe in magic her own seemed to be pretty well acquainted.

“Why are you asking me that? Couldn’t ask this to the guy that asked for you? Maybe he knows something.”

Regina rolled her eyes.

“Because if I am right with who this man is then I don’t want his help. And if I don’t you would still be the only one able to see me without me wanting it so.”

Emma still eyed her with nothing but doubt on her face, but Regina remained silent, waiting, hoping.

“Okay, aside from probably being about to completely turn mad right now… what do you need?”

Regina smirked; jackpot.


End file.
